Play Play Play - Image development

I initially had this image with text on it as well, as if the child was screaming 'Its not fair'. I am trying to make this image work without text so I started to think of things that a child may see as unfair. I thought about drawing out these situations in boxes around the crying child in a comic book style as if a culmination of unfair events has led to him being upset. This idea got far too complicated and I was making unnecessary work for myself. Because the images are a set, the idea doesn't need to be spoon fed to the people looking at the image because they should be able to work out the meaning with the help of the other images. I decided to revert back to a single image and start experimenting with ways of drawing this child. 

Media

I have been using wax crayons quite a bit in my banana type piece and I think this medium could work well with this image as well because it produces a child-like quality of image. I can see myself using wax crayons and ink or watercolours for my set of images but I need to continue to play around  with these until I find a method of working that is suitable for all three images. 

Wax crayon and ink

I drew these images in my sketchbook (using reference imagery) but I was working at an angle which meant I caused I slight distortion to their faces which is particularly noticeable on the chin. I feel this is a mistake which has actually enhanced this image by exaggerating the distortion of a child's face when they are crying. 

I applied the red ink to the shirt quite unevenly and I also left some white spaces. I think I could possibly simplify the red shirt, maybe simplifying or removing the outline, so that the face is the focus of the image and the bright red doesn't detract from this.  I could also experiment with how red works in the background of the image and maybe use a pale red wash of ink to show red cheeks. I feel red works well in this image because it represents danger and anger which clearly shows the child's mood and gives the impression that you should stay away from them when they are having a tantrum. 

Colour

So far, I have used yellow as the main colour on my bananas typeface and I have used red in the image of the crying child.  I did some research into colour theory and I feel it is natural for my final image to use the colour blue to complete the colour triad. 

Colour Research

Using primary colours links to the child-like quality of the was crayon. The crying child image clearly is related to children and the 'Mirror mirror on the wall' image is inspired by a fairytale aimed at children. Although fair-trade does not have a specific link to children, the typeface is very playful and fun so these media choices will work well here as well. 

I continued to experiment with wax crayons and produced these two images. I altered the face shape and feel these are more realistic and appropriate. Using multiple colours in the image on the right made an interesting effect but I feel it overcomplicates the image and I don't feel this technique would work as well on my other images.